


Another World, Another Life

by Saber_Sloth



Series: In Which Kenzi Frolics Around Thedas [1]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Lost Girl
Genre: Cassandra wears red lacy panties, Character Elf Insert, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Drinking to Cope, Elf-Kenzi, Elf-Kenzi will sing. A lot, F/M, Kenzi deserves some wolf love, Kenzi has a thing for wolf shifters, Kenzi is Lavellan but also not because Time Travel shenanigans, Kenzi walks blindly into Solavellen Hell, Lost Girl Season 4 - Spoilers, Modern Girl in Thedas - Kind of - Go Method or Go Home, More like Backwards and sidesways, OC insert with out the OC, Shadow Thief, Songs, Time Travel, Trespasser Spoilers, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-02 22:32:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5266265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saber_Sloth/pseuds/Saber_Sloth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Original Version. Discontinued. Rewrite in Progress.</p><p>Kenzi loves Dragon Age, and after playing through Inquisition and walking through the Civant to save Bo and the world, she falls out of a Rift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To Walk into Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time Travel (Kinda) More like backwards and sideways. But also with a character insert, not an OC or a SI, this fic idea is literally from a dream I had last night and it won't go away, it was horrible, I woke up crying. My boyfriend was a mess trying to figure out what was wrong with me, but I woke up with Var lath vir suledin ringing in my ears...so...yeah.

—

 

Robot Hookers would only get you so far.

Wearing a skin tight Christmas Elf costume was humiliating, so was not decking the handsy Santa, but because Bo still refused to let her steal the game, and console and those smexy _boots_  Kenzi suffered through it. Sighing behind the fake plastic smile she affixed to her face, she barely blinked as monster child wiped snot on her red and green tights.

The last time she played Dragon Age was just before she met Bo. Like, by a few weeks. Her fem!mage Hawke had just run off into the sunset with the broody elf, Fenris. Before the Fae, she would scroll through fanficiton on her phone to tide her over for the still unnamed third game.

It's been out for a while now, and she'd tried to stay away from spoilers, it was easier then it would have been, with the Fae, and trying to find out what the frak the creepy black smoke that took Bo away was, and her shadow thief training with the wolfman, and trying to stay out of the way of the Una Mens, and now that the game of the year edition was on the shelves Kenzi was determined to buy it and play the shit out of it.

It would keep her away from her unrequited crush on the wolf dude that refused to go away, and her awkward fumblingly settling with Hale.

She just wanted to get lost in a story that still was fantasy, that wasn't Fae drama.

 

—

 

The console was shiny. It was one of the special edition ones, orange and black. Came with a shooter, Dyson didn’t even bat an eye at the sight of it. He would have if she showed him the real game she was set to play. Sooo shiny. Kenzi thought as she sighed at it with a dreamy smile on her face, she got the D-man and his muscley-muscles to bring up the TV so she could hook it up in her attic room.

The graphics crisp as she started the game, after loading in her timeline from the Dragon Age Keep. At the character creation menu Kenzi thought about playing a qunari, then frowned when she remembered her encounter with an minotaur a couple weeks ago. Playing someone just as tall and horned...her side still hurt. Maybe later. As a human in a Fae world she knew that being human sucked. So she picked a female elf. Dalish just like her Warden, but a mage, because she did enough rouge shit in her real life.

It would shock all but Tamsin, Kenzi mused as she was looking through the vallaslin options for her elf, that Kenzi was really up on the lore. She loved Thedas. She loved it more than she loved Earth, that was for sure. It was kinda the reason she didn't pay attention to the Fae lore stuff. She was afraid if she learned more Fae stuff, she'd lose her Dragon Age knowledge.

She heard that Cullen was a romance option, he was cute in Origins, blushing and stuttering around her Amell. He had a strong character arch over the other two games, maybe she would woo him. She wanted to lose herself in a romance. With that thought she made her elf character a mirror of herself. The same silver-blue eyes, black hair and pale skin. She applied the makeup on her elf that she favoured in her real life, and himmed and hawed, over the vallaslin. Her Dalish Warden had the simple vallaslin of Dirthamen, but she didn't know if she liked this change for Inquisition. She liked the various differences in the vallaslin of Mythal, but...but... the single option for Ghilan'nain.

Now...for the colour.

 

—

 

Mermaids! О мой Бог! Fenedhis! Real life mermaids! Kenzi thought with a squee as she crawled through the air vents. Determined not to think of—of—!

Damn that Egg. Su an'banal i'ish! Solas had just taken her vallaslin, she hadn't picked up her game in a while. Mostly because of her own heart ache, but because Bo had banished her from the Crack Shack. So she could spend time with her shiny new wandering man candy.

Kenzi bit her lip casting those thoughts out of her mind and dropped down from the vent.

 

—

 

Corypheus was dead. The orb broken.

"Know that what we had was real." Reverberated around her mind as she watched Flemeth, Mythal. And Solas —Fen'Harel. The Dread Wolf.

Kenzi started laughing more then a little hysterically, wolves. Dyson. Solas. Was that her type? And neither of them wanted her.

Her hair was a mess, her makeup worse, but shook her head and downed another swig of vodka, top shelf, liberated from the Dal, and continued on. She knew that there was one last DLC. Trespasser. She's going to get her answers.

 

—

 

Those answers sucked. Sure it was a good story, but, but she _wanted_ to go with Solas. He wasn't real, but she lived in a world where her best friend was a succubus, and she was kinda dating a siren, she had a crush on a wolf shifter, her adoptive daughter was a valkyrie and her bartender was the fraking Blood King. So she didn't find it weird that she was in love. Real, heart wrenching, breath taking love with Solas.

She drowned herself in more vodka, youtube, and fanficiton.

 

—

 

Hale proposed. Her mom was there. Kenzi foolishly hoped that she had really, really left _him_ , but she reality crushed her because her mother would never chose her daughter of her abusive second husband.

She didn't tell him yes. She didn't love Hale the same way she loved Solas. Hale was a real, living breathing man, they were just passing time, or at least that's what Kenzi thought.

Then Massimo ran him through with her own sword.

She didn't love him enough. And now he was dead. Solas didn't love her enough. And he wasn't even real.

Bo found her crying and screaming, begging and pleading.

 

—

 

It wasn't just Hale she was mourning. No one else knew that. Tamsin maybe, her kind of-daughter knew more about her then the rest of her faemaily did now. Bo knew, _knew_  how much of a mess she was, but she still chose Rainer, and the knight over her. Bo always said that she was her sister, her best friend, her heart, but it was always fae drama that was chosen over her.

She was just a weak human girl. She was never good enough for anything. She wasn't even good enough to be in a stupid Fae prophecy, even though she's the one who's been by Bo's side from the beginning.

 

—

 

Bo's heart. The thought whispered through her mind, as she pressed the still blood stained Geraldean to Bo, and slipped the engagement ring Hale had given her into Bo's pocket as they hugged. When Bo stalked forward, intent on her rescuing Lauren, and to getting revenge against the druid; Massimo.

Kenzi hugged her daughter for all she was worth.

Kenzi didn't know if Tamsin knew what she was planning, or if she thought that Kenzi was just worried about them holding off an army of unquiet dead until Bo got back, but her daughter hugged her back just as hard before she broke away from her to take her place on the field.

Kenzi waited until it _felt_ right for her to walk forward. Dyson tied to stop her. Trick let her through, she could hear Bo's voice—Kenzi turned to face them and smiled before she continued to walk into the green light of the Civant.

For a moment she felt nothing. Peace, like she had never felt before. Then a scream tore itself from her throat. Undeniable, inescapable agony rolled through her. Her silver-blue eyes rolled back and all she knew was darkness.

 

—

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of my Elvhen is from FenxShiral's Project Elvhen  
> Translation:  
> О мой Бог: Russian for Oh my god.  
> Fenedhis: Used as 'shit', 'fuck' or 'god damn' lit. Wolf dick.  
> Su an'banal i'ish: To the void with him.


	2. Wibbly Wobbly

 

—

 

Asteria Trevelyan dispatched the last of the demons with a swing of her great ax. After a quick assessment of the conditions of her companions, she raised her marked hand. The strange and unsettling magic roared to life, answering her will to close the rift. Stitching the opening between the real world and the Fade. Just as the rift snapped shut with an audible pop, a dark haired elf fell to the ground in an unconscious heap.

"Blesseded Andraste!" Seeker Pentaghast breathed in shock. Cassandra hadn't been present when Asteria fell from the Fade, but there was no mistaking that this elf had performed the same feet.

Asteria was the first to her side, the elf was badly bruised, and bloodied, but she was alive. The Herald couldn't see what was causing the girl to bleed out, but it might have been something magical.

"Solas!" she shouted for the only mage in their party. If there was anyone who could stop a magical injury it was him. He had been the one to keep her alive after she too had fallen through the rift in the Fade, including his ability to try and contain the strange magic that was humming in the palm of her hand.

The apostate approached the fallen elf, he gazed down at her small form in amazement. Another had survived a journey physically through the Fade.

"Can you heal her?" the Herald asked, Solas nodded, as he knelt next to the elf, using his magic, noting when the elf's touched his in turn. _'_ _So this girl is a mage then,'_  he thought absently as he worked his magic on her, _'_ _Her magic might be the only reason why she is not dead.'_

Solas weaved his mana silently, shaping it into a diagnostic aid, 'Her _own mana is assisting me.'_  His brow furrowed, as he frowned minutely _'The question is why does her magic know how to work with mine seamlessly. The last person who could do that at all, never mind in unconsciousness, is long dead.'_

He could feel where her magic had already healed her, truly doing most of the work. He only had to aid with the internal bleeding and her bruising.

As his work came to it's conclusion, "That is all I can do for her." Solas stood, "she will need rest, but she will make a full recovery."

"Then we will make camp here. It would be best not to move her during her recovery."Asteria ordered with a ease seen by one used her orders carried out without question. As Varric and Cassandra went to work preparing the camp, the Herald turned to him, "I want you to try and find her in the Fade. I need to know if this is the person responsible for the Breach." Holding back a sigh Solas nodded in acceptance of the Herald's order after he had revealed that the unconscious elf was a mage. He knew that this elf wasn't responsible, but he was curious. This was another who had stepped out from the Fade physically...he would find her tonight as he slept, and unravel her mystery.

He would sleep next to her, "In case I am needed to heal her during the night." he had told Seeker Pentaghast, and the storyteller; Varric. Just who was this woman with her black hair, pale skin, and light blue vallaslin of Ghilan'nain. As Solas drifted into sleep he wondered what was the colour of her eyes.

 

—

 

"Solas!" a clear voice echoed in the darkness, Solas franticly searched, Who was calling his name? Was it a spirit? A friend he had met so long ago. Then light flickered into existence, memory crisp and clear. "Solas, var lath vir suledin!" the voice begged.

He heard his own voice reply, "I wish it could vhenan." _Vhenan_  the word reverberated around his mind. Echoing around the fade, as he watched as the dark haired elf, her face free of the light blue lines of her vallaslin as she knelt on the ground, the green magic of the imprint of his foci fairling wildly on her left hand. He saw himself in his elvhen armor, wolf pelt on his shoulder, an active eluvian behind him. Solas watched the scene; stunned. A brief, but lingering kiss farewell, as a spark of his magic worked. "Know that I will never forget you." his mirror spoke before he turned and walked through the portal.

Solas continued to watch as the elf knelt, the magic of the Mark flaring wildly before the green of it filled the area.

 

—

 

He watched the same women, a girl now, her vallaslin red and raw and she twirled in front of a stone statue of Fen'Harel.

"Don't tell anyone, but what I told Keeper Deshanna about why I chose this for my vallaslin wasn't the truth." the girl whispered. "I said something about halla and guiding, as First I thought that would be best. But..." the girl leaned closer, to whisper in the Dread Wolf's ear, Solas moved closer so that he could hear "I thought it was pretty." the girl giggled, "If the Keeper did our vallaslin in the Ferelden style I would have asked for Dirthemam." She continued. Her eyes, not a dull common, grey-blue, but a silver-blue, a colour he hadn't seen since the height of Elvhenan, sparked with mischief as he gave a light kiss to the statue's nose.

 

—

 

He watched as the scene change, flashes, moments in time rather than whole instances.

 

"Indomitable focus?"/ "I've yet to see it dominated, I imagine the sight would be...fascinating."

 

"I felt the whole world change."/ "Felt the whole would change?" / "...You change everything..." / "I'm aware of the metaphor, I'm more interested in...felt." A kiss. Another. Denials.

 

"I need time."/ "Take all the time you need."

 

"It would be kinder in the long run, but losing you..." a kiss. "Ar lath ma, vhenan."

 

"Solas! Veradha 'em! Sathan! Sathan! _Sathan!_ " Her light voice coming out in breathy gasps./"'Ma nuvenin." he heard his own voice reply with a throaty chuckle.

 

"The veil is thin here. Can you feel it tingling on your skin?"

 

"Ar Lasa Mala Revas. You are now free."

 

"Tell me you don't care!"/"I can't do that."/"Tell me I was just some casual dalliance so I can call you cold hearted son of a bitch, and move on!"/"I'm sorry." / "Please don't leave, Solas, I-I love you! _Ar lath ma!_ "

 

"No matter what comes, I want you to know what we had...was _real_."

 

"In another world. In another life."

 

—

Moments, both important and insignificant passed by him as he was thrust into her memories. Moments with this women, the one he would call vhenan, of them dancing around each other, simple moments of them reading together, the look of wonder crossing her delicate features as he spoke of the places, memories, and spirits he had met in the Fade.

There was more that he wasn't seeing, moments of this still unnamed elf as the Herald of Andraste, and not the Asteria Trevelyan who bore it now. Solas was brought back to the moment he turned from her stepping through the eluvian. The women in another life he had come to love kneeling on the ground.

"Enjoy yourself?" her voice, colder than he'd from what he had heard of it the memories, asked from behind him, and not from the fading form in front of him.

 

—

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:
> 
> Asteria is a name meaning, Star  
> Var lath vir suledin: Our love will endure.  
> Vhenan: My heart.  
> Ar lath ma: I love you.  
> Veradha 'em: Take me. lit. plunder me.  
> 'Ma nuvenin: As you wish.  
> Sathan: Please.  
> Ar Lasa Mala Revas: You are now free.


	3. Timey Wimey

—

 

She wasn't in pain, something cool was washing over her. Everything was blurry. Maybe she didn't die like she was supposed to. Making a big heroic sacrifice play and she doesn't even get wenches and mead? Lame. Wasn't she supposed to get busty wenches and mead? If having a Valkyrie daughter didn't get one on the fast track to wenches and mead, what did?

A light flickered in front of her eyes. Images shaping into her sole DA:I play-through, but this time...it wasn't dream-memories, reflections of the preordained choices she made during the game, but it was more.

Like she was there. She remembered thoughts she couldn't of had, memories of her time with the Clan. _Her_ Clan. First learning the path of the hunter as all young elfkits did. The quite literal shocking reveal of her magic. _Magic-!_ Causing more storms then she prevented as she learned. Moments that never happened in the game. Sitting around the fire with her companions. Sharing stories. Images, moments too real to be fake.

Every moment more real than the last, breaking her heart more than she thought it could be before she walked into that green light.

Suddenly she found herself outside of her elf!quisitor. Watching as she begged, and pleaded with Fen'Harel before the Dread Wolf walked away from her, but at the same time she was standing behind Solas wearing soft knits, and furs, his hobo apostate disguise.

"Enjoy yourself?" she bit out, this had to be more Fae bull. Something that fed on heart ache. Sorrow. Grief. The Fae pretending to be Solas turned to look at her, and took her breath away.

"You're...you're.... _him_." she breathed, because after Inari she got this kind of sixth sense, she could sort of see under the thin veneer of the lie. "Except...except..." she breathed out, hugging herself, as she shook. "This can't..." Bo, Tamsin, Dyson, Trick.

"You fell from a rift." he was looking at her with wonder.

"Like before? Am I in the Haven dungeons again?" Kenzi asks, she was an actress, con-artist more like, but she had just had all of the memories of her Lavellan mushed into her brain it made things easier.

"No." Solas shook his head, "You do not carry my mark. Another dose."

She's not the Inquisitor. Solas' mark isn't going to kill her in just over five years.

"How is that possible then?" She asks because she has to, "I've seen time magic, I can believe my going backward...but this..."

“ _'In another World. Another Life.'_ " Solas quoted back to her.

Kenzi blinked. "You think he-you- _he_ sent me here...to be with you...." She thought she was going to Valhalla, her perfect paradise, until she was called to battle. If it was, and her afterlife was a life with Solas...

"Quite possibly. He also showed me the memories the two of you shared. So I would know that I can trust you. That you already know who I am, and what I've done." then he pauses, and whispers, "That in one life I fell in love with you. A love so strong that I would seek your happiness over mine."

"Do you think that you could again? Love me?" Kenzi whispered, tears falling from her eyes, as she held onto herself as she shook, trying to hold herself together.

His silence seemed to last forever, until he says softly, "I would like to try."

 

—

 

She wakes slowly, she can feel the heat of him next to her. His magic is washing over her again. She smiles up at him.

She coughs, as she sits up. Solas helps her, as he passes her a water-skin. She drinks greedily.

"My name is Solas. You are safe here." he began, he had told her as she lay dreaming, when along the timeline they were. They hadn't even gotten to Val Royeaux yet. Still trying to help the people in the Hinterlands. "You're in the Hinterlands." he asks the unasked question, "What is the last thing you remember."

Kenzi sees both Cassandra and Varric sitting around the dim fire, with an unknown blond women, "'Ma Serannas," she says, holding the water-skin a little higher. "I-I...was the oldest...First...but twins came into their power at the same time...I left the Clan, so they wouldn't. Officially I was sent by my Keeper to the...Conclave, she wanted to know which way the wind was blowing. Ah...I signed on with a mercenary company. A small one." Kenzi added, wanting to take her story as far away from Lavellan’s, and because she knew she would mention someone from her faemaily and wanted a way to explain who they could be to her. "I-I thought that would be safer for me...a girl, an elf, a mage...to travel, then be alone." Kenzi coughed lightly, taking another sip from the waterskin, "When my Clan sent aid to Ferelden during the Blight, none of our number we sent returned. My Clan was cut in half. My...Keeper, that's the reason she didn't to be caught unawares again." she said slowly...as if trying to grasp at her memories.

"You were sent to spy on the Conclave." Cassandra stated rather than questioned, distaste evident in her voice, Kenzi answered in affirmative like it had been.

"I'm sure a lot of people were sent to spy." She replied lightly, They had found her two days ago, and Solas had already told them that she wasn't responsible for the Breach, and they had talked about what answers she was supposed to give. "What happened? And why am I in the Hinterlands?"

Cassandra gives a sigh, while the Herald, Asteria explained about the Breach and the explosion, about how she fell from a rift, the Fade.

"Is there anything else you remember?"

"A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory... a far-off memory that's like a scattered dream..." Kenzi murmured, and thanked Kingdom Hearts for that line, "It's like trying to see through frosted glass, hear through rushing water. I can try, but..."

"That's all that I expected really, I didn't remember my own name for a day or so." Asteria replied. Trying to sound reassuring.

"So where are my clothes? Armor? Weapons? Did this...rift ruin them?" Kenzi asked, she was wearing a form fitting tunic and red-brown leggings. She assumed she fell from the rift with something that wasn't from Earth. Then bit back a whimper. She would never get her boots back.

She _bought_ those! Had them on layaway and everything!

"I apologize. Here." Cassandra passes over a pile of light mail and cloth. "There was no staff with you when you exited the rift."

"'Ma Serannas, my thanks," Kenzi hummed as she pulled the pile towards her. With a quick once over and assumed it was something similar to what Merrill would have worn in DA2. She had been wearing it. _Lavellan_ had been wearing it, before she knocked out one of the guards or mercenaries, for their uniform. The green one, from the beginning of the game...

Kenzi hummed again setting her armor next to her, and smiled, accepting the bowl of something that Solas brought to her. "'Ma Serannas." Kenzi was thinking, she couldn't call herself Kenzi, not here, and not as an elf. Solas thought that it was the Mark flaring that had brought her here, and through the rift with some help from the other version of Solas. That her injuries were by the same cause, and not her spontaneous change from human to elf. She needed and elvhen name she liked and she needed a new clan name, she refused to bring any scrutiny to Clan Lavellan. Besides, this wouldn't be the first time she changed her identity.

Kenzi hummed around the porridge, and thought that she still had time before she really needed to decide.

 

—

 

"Ah hah!" She exclaimed a day or so later, her injuries were all healed thanks to her and Solas' magical skill. They had stopped once more for the night and were sitting around a fire.

"What?" Asteria asked.

"I've got it! My name! Mirae Vararian," she introduced, then with a little more flourish and a saucy wink, adds on, because she doesn't want to leave that part of her behind, "Rodhair or Banal'ras."

"Thief of Shadows..." Solas murmurs, "That is quite a title."

Kenzi nods with a smirk. When she and Dyson had been stuck together in that cage by the Una Mens he had promised to train her as a Shadow Thief.

The lessons come easily to Kenzi and she took to the training as naturally as breathing. The Romani have always had a touch of magic in their blood, fae or otherwise. Kenzi sometimes thought that was the reason she could keep up with her faemaily.

She learned to steal wallets (which she already knew), and then necklaces and rings, and then the clothing off people's backs and from under their pants while they remain unaware. She learned how to steal their hearing so she moves silently and how to steal their sight so she remains unseen. She learned to steal their sense of smell so even the wolves cannot track her. She holds back a snort, could she steal her scent so that not even the Dread Wolf could track her?

Now that's a thought. It would be fun to find out.

Dyson told her that she had it backward, that she has learned to mask her presence by hiding her footfalls and form and scent, but Kenzi likes it the other way better. He gives her a look—he gives her a lot of _looks_ during the training, which really didn't help her own crush on the wolf—but finally shrugged. "Whatever works for you." he told her.

She learned to steal shadows; first from herself and then from others. Dyson seemed shaken when he sees her demonstrate, saying that she's passed far beyond his knowledge.

Maybe, she muses as she balls up something red and lacy in her hand, that might be why she lives now. If this isn't Valhalla, maybe she stole herself from Death, and found Solas' shadow to lead her here. To him.

"Oh? Did you want another demonstration?" she asks the party as they sat around the fire. She knew none of them had seen her move.

"What demonstration?" Asteria, the Herald asks, with a furrowed brow, her leaf-green eyes puzzled.

In reply Kenzi, the newly named Mirae holds up her red and lacy prize. Biting her tongue when she hears Cassandra's mortified squeak, and Varric's guffawing. She looked over at 'Ma-No he wasn't hers-Solas and could see the amusement light in his eye.

"I was wear-How did you —?" Cassandra sputtered as she grabbed the lacy panties from her hands.

"I was using my magic for stealth long before I, or anyone realized it was magic." which really was true when she thought about it, "Another reason I was sent to the Conclave, I could be sneaky. Made signing up with my company easy too."

"I've never seen a mage use magic like that." Asteria comments after the laughter, and blush dies down, tugging at the end of her french-or was that orlesian-braid. "What other strengths, magical or otherwise, do you have?"

"Hmm..." Mirae hummed, "Dagger work, I can use a light long blade, as well." she said thinking about her katana; Geraldean. Then frowned, the last time she had seen her blade it was still covered in Hale's blood.

"Staff work of course," her memories carried her more here, but Trick had tried to teach her a thing or two with his own Bo staff. Mostly so she wouldn't keep drinking. That was during the time where Solas dumped her, and Bo banished her from the Crack Shack. She nearly drank Trick out of house and home, which was saying something. He did own a bar. The fae must have realized something other than Bo's banishment of her was wrong, he didn't try tot cut her off.

"As for my magical talents..." Mirae thought back through her memories, the new ones of her life with Clan Lavellan, she liked them more than the time she spent of the streets of Toronto. "I know some healing. Frost and lightning, lightning more so than frost, are my elemental strengths, and...I also have some train as an Arcane Warrior, very similar to the Knight Enchanter. When the Circles fell, some of the elves searched for Dalish clans, seeking shelter, one found Vararian, and she taught me the skills." she lies smoothly, she didn't learn the skills of a Knight Enchanter until the Commander Helaine had traveled to Skyhold. But they didn't need to know that.

The next step Mirae thought, was that they would want to test her skills. It was only thing to say you could do something, it was another thing entirely to actually be able to prove you could.

 

—

 

Asteria Trevelyan was a devout Andrastian, the second child of Bann Richard Trevelyan of Ostwick she was already training to become a Templar long before the tragedy of the Conclave and Most Holy, Divine Justinia V's death, despite her favouring two handed weapons, instead of the more commonly used sword and shield. Her older brother, Victor was her father's heir, and the Maker and deemed her younger half-siblings; twins to carry the burden of magic. Most of the court whispered that it was their elven mother who cursed them so, but Asteria always believed that it was the Maker's Will.

Asteria did not know if her younger siblings were at the Conclave, or if they were sequestered away in Redcliff with the rebel mages. Which was the reason she hesitated over leaving for Haven, and then to Val Royeaux. If there was a chance that she might glimpse her half-siblings...her heart had stopped when the elf-girl, now known as Mirae Vararian, fell from the rift.

For a moment Asteria thought that she had been her half-sister, Charlotte. In that moment, her heart froze, she worried that her half-brother; Jasper, was still trapped in the Fade, having failed to reach the safety of the real world. Before she realized that Mirae wasn't Charlotte, she had thought that it might have been her Trevelyan blood that carried her through the Fade and to Andraste's side so the Maker's Bride could save her life.

With the appearance of this elf, of no relation to her father's line....Asteria began to question. There could be other survivors, ones still trapped in the Fade. Tormented by demons and Maker knows what else.

Asteria Trevelyan vowed to herself that night as she settled into her sleeping roll, in the tent next to Cassandra, and the small form of the elf-girl Mirae, that she would rescue these unfortunate souls, just as she would seal the Breach. Failure was not, nor was it ever an option.

 

—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Ma Serannas: My thanks, or thank you.  
> Rodhair Or Banal'ras means, Thief of Shadows. Or Shadow Thief.
> 
> Mirae, a name meaning, little thief.
> 
> As for the Clan name that I chose for Mirae, I wanted to use Vakarian because Garrus is awesome, and I thought that the Kenzi who enjoyed Dragon Age would enjoy Mass Effect, but I wanted to see if 'Vakarian' meant anything in Elvhen. It doesn't, because there is no 'K' in the Elvhen language. So I took out the 'K' to get Vararian.  
> Vararian means, Away from Home, I use trickery with the intent of teaching knowledge. (Which I thought was just awesome!)  
> var (long, far, great distance, away) + harilla (to fight with cause, to rebel with justification, to destroy with honorable intent, to trick with the intent of teaching knowledge, to oppose.) + anor (home, land nation, lit place of,)


	4. Story Time

—

 

"Why Rodhair or Banal'ras?" Solas asks her the next day as they walk along the path, marking where the apostates kept their supply caches for Recruit Whittle. Instead of answering, she smirked stepped back from him, and stole her scent, the sound of her, and the sight of her from him. As easily as she breathed. Watched as his brow furrowed, as he stopped walking. Turning to look for her.

"Because of this." she whispered into his ear, her lips ghosting over his earlobe. As her palms rested on his chest, a finger playing with with jaw bone necklace. Before he could to more then inhale sharply, she stole herself away again, then gave herself back a few steps in front of him, winking as she blew him a kiss, before she turned around to catch up with Varric. Who was laughing at the startled look on Solas' face.

Mirae swore she could almost hear Solas' laughter on the wind.

 

—

 

That night as Solas joins her in the Fade, "What is that old Dalish saying...'May the Dread Wolf never catch your scent.'"

"Fen'Harel," Mirae begins, savouring the sight of his adam's apple bobbing, as he swallowed. "If I didn't want you to catch my scent, I think proved that you wouldn't have it." Mirae steps close enough to him that she can rest her palms on his chest again, "But I want you to find me. Always. Bell'ana."

"That is a long time." He whispered. His eyes stormy.

"It's only forever. Not long at all." she whispers back, it's a little cheesy to reply in a line from Labyrinth, but when the shoe fits...

She's so close. His scent warms her, foreign and familiar, it's like wood smoke and an autumn breezes that carries the dampness of leaves and earth, like fine herbs and old leather, there was something that was distinctly _male_ , and something Mirae fancied to be the essence of magic under it all. If she were to lean up, she could very easily press her lips to his, but she didn't want to force more intimacy than what he was ready for. She closes her eyes, and turns her head away instead.

Her eyes flying open when she feels his thumb and forefinger on her chin. She's sure her eyes are shining with her unshed tears. He wasn't, was he? Her heart hurt from her hope. Sometimes that could be one of the most debilitating of emotions. She was breathing in short little gasps as he brought her lips to his.

Explosions. Fireworks. Supernovas. A sun could have been born, lived and died during that kiss. A black hole swallowing her, and she never would have noticed.

She pressed herself falling into him. Like this could be the only time he would allow such liberties, and she was determined to make the most of it. She fisted his tunic with both of her slim hands. Their tongues twined before she realized what had happened, only pulling away when she felt the need for air. Gasping for breath, she leaned her forehead on his chest, slowing letting his tunic go, so she could lay her hands there instead.

She could tell that she was shaking, as Solas brought his arms around her shoulders instead of pushing her away.

"No, it's not long at all." Solas whispered into her hair, as he pulls her closer.

 

—

 

"Obviously Asteria isn't me, so that's different, could you tell me who the Hero of Ferelden is, The Champion, Varric's Hawke, sathan?" Mirae asks sometime later, leaning into Solas' embrace as she had when he didn't push her away. Solas hadn't wove a dream for them, they sat on a grassy hill watching the stars not so far away from where they made camp for the night.

"Hmm...The Hero of Ferelden, he had been a Circle mage. An elf, who was last seen in the company of his lover. A witch some say."

Mirae laughs lightly, "A Witch of the Wilds?" she asks, half rhetorically, she could feel Solas nod, "The woman, her name is Morrigan, she's currently, or she was when I knew her, the Occult Adviser to the Orlesian Empress. She's..." Mirae pushes herself away from him to turn to face him. "You know that something of Mythal still lingers in the world don't you?"

He smiles softly, "I did. Why?"

"Morrigan, is one of her daughters. She doesn't know...she just knows that her mother is a power immortal witch, Flemeth." She watched him nod once more, before she settled back into his chest.

"The Champion, was Viscountess of Kirkwall before her disappearance. Her husband, the Prince of Starkhaven searches for her endlessly."

"Hmm." Mirae nods, to show she heard him. They weren't her characters. Not at all. Her female Dalish elf, and her mage Hawke, who romanced Fenris. "That's very different from what I remember. The Hero of Ferelden was a girl. Dalish, romantically involved with the King of Ferelden."

"There's only a Queen. Anora."

"Oh, what happened to Alistair? The other Warden?"

"No one knows." Was he a wandering drunk, or a Grey Warden still?

"And Hawke, the Champion, she was a mage, who fell in love with the broody elf, Fenris. Who despite his past stayed by her side even though she sided with the mages."

"I wonder how this will change what is to come."

"Me too." She was biting her lip. A signal she was sure that Solas knew was to show her nervousness. She felt his hands rubbing her arms. "When I told the others, I was in a mercenary company there was a reason...and not to protect...me...if there is a past me here. Between my life carrying your Mark, and this one. There was another." Mirae says, this will probably be the easiest way to explain to him. She didn't want to lie to him. She didn't want to start, and have it bite her in the ass. Knowing her luck, it would.

He stills for a moment, before he resumes his ministrations, "I wasn't happy. I drank...all the time. After my dad died, my mom remarried. And he was an abusive asshole. I ran away from home, I was living on the streets for years, until I met Bo. And then the rest of the company. I was settling. I didn't remember you, not until the end. I was fooling around with someone. Because the only man I ever felt anything for, loved another. That man that I thought I could love...he was a shapeshifter. He could turn into a wolf." She giggles. "I have a type. 'Ma'fen, I confess. He tells me he used to be a rake, and a rouge, in his youth. Hot headed. Cocky. Then he calmed down when that cost him everything. I think," she sighs, leaning her head on his shoulder, "I might have been projecting. You on him maybe. I loved them though, they became my family." She finishes a little teary eyed.

"Tell me about them, Da'asha" Mirae smiled up at him, turning her head back so she could kiss his chin. Then settled back into his side, and spoke of her faemaily until the sun rose.

 

—

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Bell'ana: forever, eternity.  
> Sathan: Please.  
> 'Ma'fen: my wolf.  
> Da'asha: little women.


	5. As subtle as a Brick to the face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The singing starts here.
> 
>  
> 
> Translations:  
> Mamae: Mom.

—

 

They were heading back to the Crossroads, having found the rest of the apostate supply caches, and heard word that the scouts had a successful hunt. Hopefully the meat would be enough for the refugees.

Mirea hummed a song under her breath. It wasn't something she knew from Earth it was —

"Hey Magpie, what's that you're humming?" Varric asked, having long nicknamed her for her seeming inability to leave go anything shiny. Upside they sold a lot of junk, raking in the coin, the downside was, they made her carry it all. It was nice. As Lavallen, he never gave her a nickname. She was the Herald of Andraste, the Inquisitor, she was above nicknames. Bah.

"Oh? ah...it's an Dalish lullaby. I was thinking of one of my old companions." Lil' T.

"Why would you think of a mercenary and a lullaby at the same time?"

Mirae bit her lip, how to explain this in a way that didn't involve The Fae, Valkyries and their life cycles. "She, Tamsin, was injured, and lost most of her memories. She thought she was a small child. Everyone was uncomfortable to be around her, to them she was this badass bounty hunter, to see the change was startling. So I took care of her until her memories returned. She even started to call me mamae. When she grew up, as it were, she still did."

They were silent for a moment until Asteria spoke, "I've never heard a Dalish lullaby before. Sing."

"Oh-Ah...I couldn't...." Dose she even remember all the words? While her memories of her Lavellan were in her brain, they were fuzzy, distant.

"Come on now, Magpie. It would keep my mind off my sore ass." Varric did not like his horse.

Mirae snorted. "Okay, okay. Here goes." Mirae took a breath, wondering if Solas would like her singing voice, and more than half of her wishing she was a better mother to Tamsin before she grew and regain her memories. "Elgara vallas, da'len / Melava somniar / Mala tara aravas / Ara ma'desen melar / Iras ma ghilas, da'len / Ara ma'nedan ashir / Dirthara lothlenan'as / Bal emma mala dir / Tel'enfenim, da'len / Irassal ma ghilas / Ma garas mir renan / Ara ma'athlan vhenas / Ara ma'athlan vhenas..." Mirae finished drawing out the last note, noticing for the first time that while she still sounded like how she remembered as Kenzi, there was a clarity her elvhen voice held that her human one never could match.

Varric let out an impressed whistle, "Magpie that was great." Varric said as he clapped his hand to his arm, making sure he still held onto the reins.

"It really was beautiful." Asteria told her, while Cassandra gave her a smile from over her shoulder. Mirae risked a glance at Solas. Her face flushing as she saw the smoldering of his stormy eyes. Why was he looking at her like that...?

"Another kid. None of us have voice like yours."

"Uh...Okay." she agreed, trying to take her mind off the confusing and arousing expression of Solas' face. "Hmm...I know!" She started with a smirk, "How about a tale and then a song after? Do any of you know the story of 'Little Red Ridding Hood'?" she asked knowing that they didn't. When each of them shook their heads she took a breath, She knew what Solas would take from the story, what she remembered from the Brothers Grimm, but the song...! She'd found the song in a Solavellen playlist on youtube. Mirae didn't know if they would understand some of the references in the song without the story to go with it. She just hoped that reciting the story of 'Little Red Ridding Hood' didn't explode in her face.

 

> "Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'
> 
> "One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.'
> 
> "'I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on it.
> 
> "The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.
> 
> "'Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.
> 
> "'Thank you kindly, wolf.'
> 
> "'Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?'
> 
> "'To my grandmother's.'
> 
> "'What have you got in your apron?'
> 
> "'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger.'
> 
> "'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?'
> 
> "'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you surely must know it,' replied Little Red Riding Hood.
> 
> "The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful - she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.'
> 
> "So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Red Riding Hood, and then he said: 'See, Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the flowers are about here - why do you not look round? I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing; you walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while everything else out here in the wood is merry.'
> 
> "Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, she thought: 'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would please her too. It is so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time.'
> 
> "So she ran from the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever she had picked one, she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.
> 
> "Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.
> 
> "'Who is there?'
> 
> "'Little Red Riding Hood,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine; open the door.'
> 
> "'Lift the latch,' called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot get up.'
> 
> "The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap, laid himself in bed and drew the curtains.
> 
> "Little Red Riding Hood, however, had been running about picking flowers, and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her grandmother, and set out on the way to her.
> 
> "She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to herself: 'Oh dear! how uneasy I feel today, and at other times I like being with grandmother so much.' She called out: 'Good morning,' but received no answer; so she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and looking very strange.
> 
> "'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'
> 
> "'All the better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply.
> 
> "'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.
> 
> "'All the better to see you with, my dear.'
> 
> "'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!'
> 
> "'All the better to hug you with.'
> 
> "'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'
> 
> "'All the better to eat you with!'
> 
> "And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red Riding Hood.
> 
> "When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loud.
> 
> "The huntsman was just passing the house, and thought to himself: 'How the old woman is snoring! I must just see if she wants anything.' So he went into the room, and when he came to the bed, he saw that the wolf was lying in it.
> 
> "'Do I find you here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' But just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did not fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach of the sleeping wolf.
> 
> "When he had made two snips, he saw the little red riding hood shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little girl sprang out, crying: 'Ah, how frightened I have been! How dark it was inside the wolf.'
> 
> "After that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe. Red Riding Hood, however, quickly fetched great stones with which they filled the wolf's belly, and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he collapsed at once, and fell dead.
> 
> "Then all three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin and went home with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Red Riding Hood had brought, and revived. But Red Riding Hood thought to herself: 'As long as I live, I will never leave the path by myself to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.'
> 
> "It is also related that once, when Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red Riding Hood, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way, and told her grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he had said 'good morning' to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not been on the public road she was certain he would have eaten her up.
> 
> "'Well,' said the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, so that he can not come in.'
> 
> "Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried: 'Open the door, grandmother, I am Little Red Riding Hood, and am bringing you some cakes.'
> 
> "But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard stole twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait until Red Riding Hood went home in the evening, and then to steal after her and devour her in the darkness. But the grandmother saw what was in his thoughts.
> 
> "In front of the house was a great stone trough, so she said to the child: 'Take the pail, Red Riding Hood; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough.'
> 
> "Red Riding Hood carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the smell of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was drowned. But Red Riding Hood went joyously home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again."

"All that for a song? Must be some song...but that was a good tale, one I haven't heard before, reminds me of something Daisy might have told about the Dalish god, the Dread Wolf. You’ve a good voice for the telling Magpie. Is that competition I'm sensing?"

She snorts, "Don't think you could handle the competition Varric?" Mirae quickly looked up at Solas, his eyes had lost their smolder, and instead look troubled. Looking away when he saw her glancing at him. Mirae fought back a sigh. "The song...it takes the wolf in a different direction, I like the song more than I ever liked the tale."

She took another breath,"Hey there little red riding hood / You sure are lookin’ good / You're everything a big bad wolf could want / Little red riding hood / I don't think little big girls should / Go walking in these spooky old woods alone / What big eyes you have / The kind of eyes that drive wolves mad / Just to see that you don't get chased / I think I oughta walk with you for a ways / What full lips you have / They're sure to lure someone bad / So until you get to Grandma's place / I think you oughta walk with me and be safe / Gonna keep my sheep suit on / 'Til I'm sure that you've been shown / That I can be trusted walking with you alone / Little red riding hood / I'd like to hold you if I could / But you might think I'm a big bad wolf so I won't / What a big heart I have / The better to love you with / Little red riding hood / Even bad wolves can be good / I try to keep satisfied / Just to walk close by your side / Maybe you'll see things my way / 'Fore we get to Grandma's place / Little red riding hood / You sure are lookin’ good / You're everything a big bad wolf could want / Little red riding hood / I don't think little big girls should / Go walking in these spooky old woods alone / What big eyes you have / The kind of eyes that drive wolves mad / Just to see that you don't get chased / I think I oughta walk with you for a ways / What full lips you have / They're sure to lure someone bad / So until you get to Grandma's place / I think you oughta walk with me and be safe..."

"I can see why you would enjoy a love story better." Cassandra comments, deftly ignoring Varric's raised eyebrow.

"Love stories...yeah I hope they had a happy ending..." Mirae whispered, looking up a Solas from under her lashes.

She was about as subtle as a brick to the face.

—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The First Song is called, Mir Da'len Somniar, the Dalish Lullaby. And it can be found [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl3CmzQY1So).
> 
> For the story of Little Red Ridding Hood, I got it from [here](http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LittRed.shtml).
> 
> The second song she sings is Little Red Riding Hood, sung by Amanda Seyfried and can be found [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTzLgnT9UFI).
> 
> Not the longest chapter, I know, but the singing and story are not just because I wanted to put them there for shits and giggles. There is a reason, which you'll see in the next chapter.


	6. The Pink Owl in the Clearing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations at the end to avoid spoilers.

—

 

Solas had deftly avoided her for the remainder of the day. Conveniently being elsewhere with a fineness that unless Mirae didn't know he was doing it on purpose she wouldn't have the slightest clue. They brought the supplies, meat and furs to the refugees, handing over the map they had marked the apostate caches on. And decided to stay within the village for the night.

Just because Solas avoided her during the day, didn't mean he would have the same resolve to stay away in the Fade. Mirae had a plan. She was ripping it off from a Disney movie, but she had a plan.

When she crawled into bed, an actual bed and not just a sleeping roll, in the cabin she was sharing with Cassandra and Asteria, Mirae quickly cast a sleep spell on herself. She needed to set the stage.

She was greeted by a bubbly figure, it's silhouette coloured in a soft pink blush. A Spirit, one who was nearly vibrating in excitement. "I'll help! I'll help!"

Well saved her looking for a spirit that wanted too. "Why?"

"Love silly! Reawakening! Renewing! Reconciling!" the spirit, one of love apparently, giggled at her.

"Would you help me get the forest clearing I need?" There was enthusiastic nodding, and the two of them shaped this part of the fade into a familiar forest clearing. The Spirit took on the shape of an owl, a owl that was the colour of blush, but an owl, finding wisps that would play the smaller animals. The red cloak woven itself into existence. As she thought of herself in a simple dress.

Show time.

"You know I'm really not supposed to speak to strangers, but we've met before...I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream / I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam," She could feel Solas' magic signature, as he approached her forest clearing, she hadn't warned him away, and this was the first time she had shaped the fade...she had his curiosity piqued. She thought as she danced with the Spirit of Love, now in it's owl shape. "Yet I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem / But if I know you, I know what you'll do / You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream," She hummed, and danced with the owl, and the wisps, turning her back and bringing the red cloak around her, "But if I know you, I know what you'll do," There! She could feel his approach, "You'll love me at once." joining her in with the next line, maybe her impression of the scene from the movie was strong enough that he could feel it...or he wanted to join his voice with hers. "The way you did once upon a dream," she turned to look at him smiling, her eyes shining with love, "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream / I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam / And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem / But if I know you, I know what you'll do / You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream..." they finished together, as Solas spun her within the circle of his arms.

He led her to a large rock by the crystal clear lake, he motioned for her to take a seat, and after a moment longer, "That song was rather apt."

"That's why I chose it." She looked down, twining her fingers together, "I knew 'Little Red Riding Hood' was going to trouble you, but...ir abelas, Solas, I didn't think that it would-" He stilled her twining fingers with his own, cradling her hands with his.

"It was rather childish of me. For my reaction afterwards." his thumbs began stroking the back of her hands, "I was just reminded of how I am seen by the Dalish. There must have been a time when you would have believed such a tale as well."

"Never." she bit out, glaring at the man in front of her, taking her hands away.

He looked up from where their hands had joined. " _'Never.'_ " he repeated, a mocking lilt to his lyrical voice, "I doubt that."

"I never believed in the Creators they way the others in my clan did. Don't you remember when I got my vallaslin? I did it because it was pretty!" Mirae stood from the rock suddenly then, making her skirts move with her. "Not because I wanted to follow any of the gods. I told this to the statue of the Dread Wolf, if you've forgotten! I was a very poor First! The only reason the Keeper kept me in that role was that I was the only mage-child born!" she huffed. "This was supposed to make up for troubling you and you do this-doubt my word! You ass!" she shouted. Solas stood, looking bewildered as he moved to reach for her, she hissed, " _Pala adahl'en!_ " spinning around to run from him.

Before she makes it back to the treeline, he catches her, arms like steel bands around her waist. She struggles against him, "Let me go!" she tried to pry his arms from her, "Ma felasil! Let me go!"

"Din." He growled into her ear.

"Why?" she spat through clenched teeth, "You've never wanted to hold onto me before!" She shouts before her mind could catch up with her mouth. Suddenly all the fight feld her. Instead she shook within his arms, tears falling from her eyes. "How do I know that this is going to be different? It's only ever been you...'Ma'sa'lath...but....Ahn ar'das ara vhen'an o'danal sal?" she whispered, ugly tears blotching her cheeks.

She hears a short shape intake of breath before Solas, breathes out, whispering her name like a prayer, "Mirae..." holding her close instead of holding still. Slowly shifting her so that she faced him. He brings his thumb and forefinger to her chin so that he could tilt her head. Making her look at him. His stormy eyes clear, looking at her with such kindness. "I could never leave you. Not again. Not knowing what it would do to you. A lifetime of misery." he whispers thinking back on what she had told him of her life as Kenzi. "I didn't think that the elves of this time could love like we did in Elvhenan."

Mirae questions him with her eyes, he in return frowns slightly, "Love, true love. When an elvhen would call another 'vhenan' meant something, and it could only be used once. When an elvhen finds a love like that. It is as eternal and undying as we were. The version of me that let you go would never stop loving you, he thought that you could find love elsewhere..." his brows furrowed, "You love as I do. Three lifetimes your heart has been mine." he states, like it's a fact. And it is. She had made no secret of her love of him. Even knowing that he couldn't return the sentiment. She nods anyway, as much as she could with his thumb and forefinger still on her chin. "And I have not handled it with the care that it requires. Ir abelas. For my earlier words. They were thoughtless, and perhaps a small test. I wanted to know how you would react. It is one thing to say that you love me. It is another to show it."

And just like that the rest of the fight that had been building within her from his words left her. "Ar lath ma, vhenan." she whispers, looking into his blue eyes, "Vhenan'ara." she adds after a moment's, pleased with the way his ears tinted to a light pink. "I know you don't love me. Not yet. You've only known me for a few weeks at most. Traipsing around the Hinterlands. Ar'sar bell'ana. I am yours, always. I will give you more time. I did that once before. I can do it again. Even if you reach a different conclusion."

"That is all I ask, and I will try not to be so much of an 'ass'" he finishes dryly. Mirae laughs, it is bright and clear, her earlier tears forgiven.

 

—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Song is, Once upon a dream, from Sleeping Beauty and you can find it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXbHShUnwxY).
> 
> Translations:  
> Ir Abelas: I'm sorry.  
> Pala adahl'en.: Go fuck a forest. I'm a bit fan of the idea that Kenzi would learn all of the swearwords first.  
> Ma felasil: you fool.  
> Din: no.  
> Ma'sa'lath: my one love.  
> Ahn ar'das ara vhen'an o'danal sal: How do I prevent my heart from breaking again?  
> Vhenan'ara: my heart's desire.  
> Ar'sar bell'ana: I am yours always.


	7. A Plea in the Night

—

 

Before they left the Crossroads Asteria took Mirae at her word and used what they could spare and purchased her a set of decent daggers, as well as a slightly used staff.

"Even with your martial skill you shouldn't be without a staff," is what the Herald said as she handed Mirae the weapon. Mirae now in her armor as was the norm since the elf's injuries healed, knew that this was a test. With a smile and a thank you, she attached the staff to her back, willing her mana to hold it there. The magical bounds formed, as she took the twin daggers, testing their weight with practiced ease, then strapped them to her thighs.

She knew that the Inquisition scouts had been patrolling the area before they would arrive so they wouldn't see combat until she was outfitted, and now she was.

They weren't even an hour's march out from the Crossroads before they caught sight of a group of bandits.

Cassandra started banging her sword on her shield, taunting them towards her. Varric slipped away to take advantage of the high point of a large rock. Asteria took her position off center from Cassandra, her great axe in hand. Solas casually encircled them all in his warm barrier.

Mirae smirked, as a clarity fell over her. It had been too long since she's seen combat. This wasn't unlike the feeling she felt as she walked to her death. Everyone moving in slow motion.

She stole herself away, gather spirit and frost around herself, fade-stepping so that she reappeared behind the bandits, spectral blade in her left, staff in her right. Her mana tasting Solas' barrier rubbing against it with more than just a passing familiarity. She twisted it towards her, using what the Commander taught her. Nearly five years of practice under her belt she knew how to hold her barrier, renew it with the strength of her attacks.

Thinking of it, she absently cast a barrier over Varric, so Solas is free to renew his over the warriors.

The man she was attacking fell, blood gurgling from his throat. She had given up try to impale him on her spectral blade and instead, drew her new dagger. Her attacker had laughed at her then, unimpressed with a mage trying to intimidate him with a blade. His eyes were still disbelieving when she used her dagger to pierce his throat.

As she exhaled she loosed her sparks, arcing them into an adept chain lighting spell. Then spun her staff, using it's natural ice magic to attack the slippery son of a bitch that was stalking Varric. Thinking the dwarf, with his crossbow was an easy target. Gathering her mana she let loos a spell surge, freezing the slippery bugger, just in time for Cassandra's shield bash. She smirked as the bastard shattered.

Life came back into focus. Moving at it's normal speed. As she noticed that their enemies were either dead or dying. Mirae walked around their fallen shapes, sending her sparks to their hearts, making certainty of their deaths.

Asteria, was stepping on her opponent's chest, with a grunt she pulled her great axe out of his chest. Varric walked the field, searching for any of the bolts be could salvage.

"Two mages do make a world of difference." Asteria comments, as she cleans the edge of her great axe.

After that battle, it seemed that they couldn't continue forward without running into someone attacking them. Mages, Templars, highwaymen, and the bears. Oh gods, the real gods, the fake ones, the bears!

Mirae slipped into their party dynamics with an ease she attributed to her Lavellen's memories of fighting with them. When she was asked after her seeming familiarity, Mirae attributed that to her time spent with her old mercenary company.

"Must have been a diverse group then." Varric commented that night, around a campfire.

"They were. Bo...honestly Varric, she reminds me of Isabella from your stories. Anyone, anywhere, anywhen." Mirae laughed remembering at the time when the plaster from the ceiling fell on her head it was annoying, now it was fond memory,"And despite her name, favored daggers, or throwing knifes. Trick used a staff, but he wasn't a mage," not as they would know it in Thedas, he was a blood sage...so maybe as they knew it in Thedas. "he just used it to hit things." she added with a laugh, "He also owned the bar we spend most of our time at. Tamsin...before she lost her memories she was very cold, closed off. A bitch in a word, but after...I saw a different side to her, and she didn't ever really stop training, she wanted to learn how to use every weapon. I know she knew how to use a sword and shield, and a spear, but when I met her she used daggers. Dyson preferred his sword. When I knew him he was very law abiding. Vex...well...." Mirea laughed, "I don't know how to explain Vex...Lauren patched us up after our adventures. Hale..." She paused, how was she supposed to talk about him? The rest of the group was waiting for her to continue, she swallowed, "Hale he was from a very important family from Antiva, he was the heir, but he wanted nothing to do with the family. He asked me to marry him. I told him no, I didn't love him. Then was killed, while we were arguing, run through, with my sword."

They were silent around the fire, Mirae lost in her own thoughts a frown crossing her face. "Hey Magpie, sing us another one of your Dalish songs." Varric broke the silence.

"Oh...uhh...sure..." giving the dwarf a small smile, knowing he was trying to take her mind off her memories.

Her lips twisted into a soft smile, she knew what she wanted to sing, being a huge fangirl had it's advantages it seems, "/Ga haur te'lea / Es'an ehn shia ga te'laim / Shan ea soun tel'banafelasa / Bre'gen'adahl ea tel'dera i'eireth / Ise juthen o genise / U'lea o bane jushen / Danem'mis tuemah'sal / Es o tel'tiara ea ha'raj sal /" She brought the last note to a close, she smiled. Knowing that all but Solas didn't know what her words meant, but she knew the Dread Wolf knew what she was trying to say.

She saw the small half smile on Solas' face, Varric's broad grin, Cassandra soft smile, which was matched by Asteria's. She knew they didn't understand the words, but they had enjoyed the melody.

 

—

 

They cleared both the apostles, the Templar's camps. Righted all the wrongs we could see. Sealed the rifts they could reach. Rescued Ritts and sent her off to Leliana's people. Convinced many to join with the Inquisition, had the watchtowers built, coordinating via messenger bird, instead of traveling back to Haven to give the order. Met the cult worshiping the Breach, convinced them to join the Inquisition, taking up ranks with Leliana's people. Told the mage that his lady love was at the Maker's side, convincing him to help. Got the medicine to the ailing mother elf, and berated her son for leaving during such dangerous times, found the first of Solas' ancient elvhen artifacts and made sure the horse-master, Dennet would be going to Haven, but still they didn't join them.

All Mirae thought that could be left for them to do was go to Redcliffe, but Asteria hesitated, a frown marring her features, her eyes clouded and troubled.

In the end she didn't have to decide to travel to the village. They received a raven, Inquisition scouts had been taken in the Fallow Mire.

They left for the swamp at first light.

 

—

 

"There's going to be undead. Strange magic. Veilfire." Mirae began as she walked the fade with Solas. He looked down at her, questions light in his eyes. "I want you to take my vallaslin." She heard his sharp intake of breath, and continued on as if she had not,  "With the strangeness of the magic, it will be easy to explain why it disappeared."

"Are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be? I know what it means, what you see when you look at my face. I don't want to be...branded anymore. I've had two years, and a lifetime without it. Ar sule'vi'in."

Solas searches her face, her eyes for a long moment before he speaks. "'Ma nuvenin."

 

—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Ar sule'vi'in: I'm certain.  
> 'Ma nuvenin: As you wish.
> 
>  
> 
> The Song isn't really a song, more of a poem, and it's actually the elvhen translation of The Riddle of Strider (also known as All that is gold does not glitter) a poem from the Lord of the Rings. Translated by FenxShiral.   
> All that is gold does not glitter,  
> Not all those who wander are lost;  
> The old that is strong does not wither,  
> Deep roots are not reached by the frost.  
> From the ashes a fire shall be woken,  
> A light from the shadows shall spring;  
> Renewed shall be blade that was broken,  
> The crownless again shall be king


	8. Black Blood, Wet Hay, and Bare Face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Lethal'lan: blood kin, clan mate, very close and dear friend, used to address females.  
> Harellan: Trickster, rebel, or traitor. Traitor and trickster are new meanings of the word. The archaic meanings is simply 'rebel.'

—

 

She tried to keep the frown from her face. She was a Templar in training, a knight-almost, she was the chosen of Andraste. She shouldn't be this upset about some rain. Especially not when there was Inquisition scouts that were only captured because of her. Because these… _barbarians_ , wanted to fight her and disprove the Maker's divine claim!

But as she swung her great axe, slicing through the undead shambling forward, she caught sight of her once golden hair, now wet and coloured like stale hay. Wet stale hay. Maybe she should braid it up into a bun...She frowned, and hoped the others would think it was due to the black blood on her face.

At least they had a solid reason not to sludge through the swamps and keep to the paths. No one wanted to be overrun by the dead.

They stepped up to a pillar, atop a mound, Asteria motioned for Solas to cast his magic to work on the empty lantern, summoning veilfire.

She heard a high pitched shriek, as demons and undead descended upon them.

The fight wasn't as hard as she anticipated. Not with two mages working in tandem. They didn't even take as much damage as before, each taking a turn to renew the ever fading barriers. She would have to rethink her strategies now. Asteria didn't think she would be leaving either mage behind unless there was something pressing that they wouldn't be able to join in her company.

The veilfire burned, the magic in her mark buzzing, disquieted, Asteria reached for a torch, there should be a rune nearby she could hear it's tinkling....when her eyes grew heavy, and she saw her companions fall to the ground with her.

 

—

 

The Herald woke with a sharp gasp, her hand still grasping her great axe. Her eyes frantically searched the area. She saw the Seeker doing the same. She heard Varric's coughing from the other side of the pillar, then she felt Solas' magic wash over her, them she supposes.

"It was a sleeping spell. A defense mechanism, perhaps. The remnants are gone now." Solas' steady voice sound near where she lay.

"Owe." Mirae wheezed, "I landed on the crystal of my staff. Solas, can you see if I have a bruise or anything that needs healing?"

"A moment, lethal'lan." Solas stood, walked toward where Mirae was sitting up. Asteria turned to see if the poor girl was injured. If it was serious they might have to send her back to camp. And here she thought she would be keeping the two-Her thoughts stopped dead. The growing familiar and paradoxically exotic light blue lines marking Mirae's face were gone.

 

—

 

The Herald's eyes were wide as they looked at Mirae. So were Cassandra and Varric's. Cassandra suspicious of the magic at work, whereas Varric would know what her bareface would mean for her now. She was neither Dalish nor city elf. She would never be accepted back into any Clan.

That didn't matter, she knew what she was giving up when she asked Solas, to remove her markings. She would never forget the image of Solas breathing out "Beautiful," as he took her vallaslin. The feather soft kiss, he pressed into her lips before he went about waking their companions.

She lets Solas do a pointless diagnostic spell to reassure their other companions. "There is nothing untoward affected her. Perhaps the unusually combinations of magic her has...undone the spell used to create her vallaslin." Solas speaks after a moment, and because they couldn't waste anymore time, what Solas said was taken as the best answer.

Cassandra and Asteria marched on a head. Varric was giving her sidelong glances. While Mirae had to fight off a silly smile from stretching across her lips. She could feel Soals' fingers, so light their touch, she could have imagined it, but for the essence of his mana pressed along with them on the small of her back.

 

—

 

They treated the next pillar with more caution. At the conclusion of the battle where the veilfire summoned more demons and undead, Solas subtly casts another sleep spell, this one light enough that they would easily be able to fight it off. Mirae still used a quick dispel.

"Either the effect of this magic are less than before, or we are gathering an immunity to this magic." Solas' strong voice echoed slightly in the stillness.

"I dislike not knowing what this magic has done to use. Mirae especially, but it can only be beneficial to gain an immunity to it." Cassandra commented as she sheathed her sword.

They others make sounds of agreement.

 

—

 

They had sealed the rift, and met Skywatcher. "What does this mean for you? The Dalish?" Asteria asked as they pause to catch their breath.

"It means that I will never go back to my clan. Or any clan. They next time any Dalish see me, they will think I am a flat-ear, city elf at best, Harellan; a traitor at worst." she murmurs, catching Solas' fingers with hers, giving them a firm squeeze. Then holding them for a moment before they pull away. "It means that I belong nowhere." Mirae answers, an echo of Kenzi in her voice.

"You belong with us." Came Varric's strong voice, "If you need Magpie, I'll take you to Kirkwall after all this hole in the sky business in finished."

"Thank you." Mirae whispered sincerely, her voice thick with emotion, it lightened her heart to know that Varric cared enough about her now to offer. But she knew she would never leave the wolf at her side, and even if he tried to leave again, she would follow his shadow to the ends of the earth and beyond.

 

—

 

They fought and killed the Avaar chieftain's son, and his fellows, rescued the scouts, recruited Skywatcher, sealed the remaining rifts and left the blighted swamp, and it's creepy scrambling undead horde. Mirae hated undead. Walking to what she thought would be her death, through a horde of them permanently soured her regard for the popular movie monster.

Mirae, could tell the Herald wanted to travel back to the Hinterlands, and knew the others could see Asteria's hesitance too, but none of them knew why she wanted to travel back there, instead of heading to Haven. When they asked, the Herald bit her lip and shook her head. Directing them on the path towards Haven.

 

—

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the lack of updates! My dad, brother and I were in a car accident, and I was in the hospital. We're fine now, but because of hospital bills I couldn't pay my internet bill and yeah...but I have internet back and I hope to get back into the swing of things!


	9. A New Addiction and Old Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation:  
> Falon: Friend.

—

 

Mirae breathes in the cold mountain air. Nearly four weeks of solid riding. Even Varric had stopped complaining about his sore ass.

Haven, it's just like she remembered it...only more. There's too many people. Rows of tents lined up outside the gates, people packed together within the gates, most of these people will die when Corryfish and his army of Templars and/or Mages marches.

"No one _likes_ the Inquisition right?" she asks as they dismount. Her nose wrinkling because her ass was waay beyond the point of 'ow'. "And there's still whoever blew up the Conclave right? And all of these people know where we are right?"

"Where are you going with this Magpie?"

"If something happens, we don't' know what kind of power our unknown enemy holds, considering whatever he did tore a hole in the sky...what if he attacks? All these people out here...they would be the first to-to-" Mirae swallows. Kenzi never realized how hollow pixels could be as Lavellan remembers the smell of burning bodies.

"You are right." Cassandra speaks, suddenly beside her. "I will speak with Commander Cullen, and the others into organizing a safer solution to our pilgrims."

"Thank you, Seeker. I would hate to see something happen to these people when someone in charge could have done something." Mirae flashes her one time friend a smile.

"Cassandra." Mirae's blinks up at the other women, "You may use my given name, The Herald as told me that she wishes you to continue to accompany us, as comrade you can use my given name."

"'Ma Serannas, Cassandra." the warrior heads off, walking in the direction of the Commander, who was barking at his troops.

"Well I'm going to find something to eat." Varric comments with a wave, heading towards the gates.

"And I should speak with the Council, before I do anything else." Asteria says with a sigh as she head toward the gates.

"We were attacked. Most of these people didn't make it. Hardly anyone did." Mirae whispers, answering Solas' unasked question. "I tried to save as many as I could...but it wasn't enough. It was never enough." tears slip from her eyes. She closes her eyes, as she feels Solas' mana press against her, embracing her in a way he couldn't be seen doing.

She blinked away her tears, and gave him a small smile. Turning her mana back to him, returning the embrace.

 

—

 

Mirae caught sight of Varric as she crouched next to a fire, warming his hands.

" _'Swords and Shields'_ please!" she chirped when he looked up.

"What?"

"One of my friends, was completely addicted to that series, read it like it was the nectar of the gods, so...I thought I could give it a read, and see why she liked the trash that much. Err no offence." Mirae added on at the end.

Varric snorted as he chuckled lightly, "No, it is trash, it's my worst work. Least popular. Are you sure you want to be reading it?"

"Even if I don't like it. It'll remind me of my friend."

"Ah. I get that Magpie, I'll see if I can dig up the first chapter."

"Thank you Varric!" she chirped again, hugging him briefly, but firmly. Before she darted away from him and the fire.

 

—

 

Mirae looks at the slim book in her hands, she was sitting on a tree stump a way away from the rows of tents, but close enough that she could see be seen. Really this was supposed to be a ploy. A might bit underhanded, but she missed her dear friend. Mirae hope that this would be a way for them to start talking again.

She opened the book. She as Lavellen never got the chance to read it, as Kenzi she had her own secret stash of smutty books, and the fanfiction...and the live Bo show if she was feeling really desperate...but now...

 

—

 

She hunched over the book, chewing on her bottom lip, ooh this was trash, really, really, but it was _this_ side of good. Mirae could see it becoming something of an addiction even if it doesn't give her a way to talk to Cassandra again. Back on Earth this would have been an instant classic.

She hears someone cough lightly trying to get her attention. Absently she puts a finger up, she's almost done.

Whoever is standing there is content to let her finish, and she hears a familiar laugh when her brow furrows and she finishes the last page, turning it back and forth a few times.

But-but-the Guardswomen! The Smuggler! Damn that dwarf. Did this whole series end in cliff hangers?

"What?" flip, "The!" flip. "Argh!" she groans as she shuts the book.

"My reaction was much the same the first time I read it." Cassandra volunteers.

"Really? So it's not just me then? Wait, you've read _'Swords and Shields'_?"

The Seeker looks nervous but she nods anyway. "Yes, when began to question Varric about the Champion, I began reading his books."

"Do you have the second one then?"

"I do. In fact I have them all,"

"For research?" Mirae asks with an amused raised eyebrow, Cassandra frowns at her. "Will you let me borrow the second chapter?" Mirae asks after a moment of silence.

"Yes."

"Have read all the ones you do have?"

"I haven't found the time to read the latest chapter." the Seeker confesses after a moment. A light blush colouring her cheeks.

"Nor, the space I gather, I don't think you'd want Varric, or the Herald to know you've read this."

"I would not." she replied with an expression that promised pain if her secret be revealed.

"You have my solemn word falon, I will take your secret to the grave." Mirae swares, placing a hand over her heart. Her face matching the Seekers in seriousness, but a grin split her lips and she started to giggle.

"I _need_ to read the next chapter! I want to know how Guardswomen deals with the lyrium smuggler, and whether or not-" She chatted as they walked to the Seekers living quarters, both of them whispering about the plot and characters.

 

—

 

It would still be weeks before they left for Val Royeaux, Asteria wanted to outfit everyone, arms and armor, using the resources the Inquisition has acquired. Some from the Hinterlands, and others where they could use their connections to purchase them. Asteria was of noble blood and knew the importance of appearances, especially in Val Royeaux.

Mirae was hovering outside of the room that Josephine had claimed in the Haven Chantry. If there was anyone who could see about her request it would the Ambassador, but...she wasn't _Josie_ , not yet. And she might never become her Josie again.

She knew her hesitancy would have drawn interested looks if she hadn't stolen herself away before she stepped foot in the Chantry.

Mirae grunted soundlessly. She was better than this. She opened the door just enough that she could slip through, and gave herself back, just as she spoke, "Umm, excuse me Lady Montilyet? Do you have a moment?"

The Ambassador looked up from the papers on her desk, "Ah, Mistress Vararian, was it? I do, what do you need?" The women asked, seemingly devoting her entire attention to the slim elf in front of her.

"I have a few questions. I know that Lady Trevelyan has ordered new armor to be crafted for use to present a more appropriate face of the Inquisition while we are in Val Royeaux, I had a request. I don't believe the armorer has the schematic of what I would want. I thought perhaps that you could find something, that can be use or..."

"Of course, Mistress Vararian, what exactly were you looking for?"

"A corset." she said simply, she had spent too many years as Kenzi to feel comfortable without one, then laughed lightly at the raised eyebrow of the Ambassador. Mirae thought then, that the women probably thought she was going to be asking for something elfy. "Something armored that I can wear in combat. So it wouldn't be a liability. Black, silvers, blues. Perhaps enchantments, or runes....also shoes!" she her cooed.

She could see the Ambassador warming up to her already and they hadn't even began to talk about fashion. "I saw these lovely boots, the last time I was in a boutique. I doubt they would be good for traveling, but oh, they were lovely, soft leather, buckles. Heels to _die_ for!"

"Oh, from the sound of it they do sound lovely, but if you are interested in shoes you might want to talk to Sister Leliana. But I will see if I can dig anything up on this armored corset you want, see about more than one. Perhaps something to wear when you are not out in the field?"

"That would be fabulous. 'Ma Serannas! Thank you! Lady Montilyet, also if it is possible, some skirts, trousers? Perhaps a jacket that I can take with into the field?"

"It's Josephine, and I will see what I can do."

"Then it's Mirae, Josephine." Mirae turned to leave with a smile, then she stopped, "Oh! Is the Inquisition going to be wearing masks, in Val Royeaux? Does the Inquisition have a theme for our masks? Colour? Jewels? Will Lady Trevelyan be wearing her family's colours?"

"Ah," Josephine, looked surprised as her last question, probably not expecting an elf to ask. "On that topic we are still in debate over."

"Ah, okay then. Have a good day Josephine!"

"To you as well," The Ambassador replies as she returned to her work.

Mirae gives the Antivan women a fond smile before she closes the wooden door behind her.

 

—

 


	10. Dragonling Hide and Girlish Glee

 —

 

"I'll see you in a few minutes Cassandra." Mirae spoke, her hand on the doorknob to her room, "I should put on _my_ new armor." Asteria Trevelyan had worked in secret with the armorer, and the ambassador to get them presentable for their journey to Val Royeaux, and so none but they had any idea what lay waiting for them.

"As I should as well."

"I'll see you in the war room then." Mirae finished as she opened the door, and stepped through.

"Oh." she breathed. "The Inquisition really went all out."

The first thing that drew her eye was a pair of wickedly sharp daggers. The blade a black that shone blue in the light. Obsidian. Mirae thought as she lifted them in her slim hands, testing the weight, the hilts too strong, and too shiny to be anything other than silverite. The staff laying next to them was crafted to match. Only at first glance it didn't look like a traditional staff. Looking more like a decorative blade then a mage's staff.

An obsidian handle, wrapped with a dark, deep blue cloth, the bladed end was long a curved and made of the same shining silverite. The top, acting like a hilt and pommel, was deceptively, delicate branches holding a purple-blue crystal. Simmering, and crackling with power, when she fed mana into it.

They really were embracing her shadow thievery Mirae thought with a wry smirk as she gazed upon the armor laying on her bed.

Josephine had come through for her. Mirae thought, dazed. As she stared in awe at the garments in front of her, she picked up what she assumed was the armoured corset, it was made of a soft supple leather, the silverite buckles and fastening glittering like stars against the pitch black of the underbust.

The pants, were leather as well, and were as soft and supple as the corset, but Mirae could feel the undercurrent of magic humming within all of the garments in front of her.

The runes and enchantments, woven in during the crafting of her new armor. The shirt she would wear under her corset was a deep dark blue, finally bring much needed colour to her ensemble, and to wear over that was a leather jacket as dark as pitch with a large cowl hood. Each of the pieces were elegant, and subtly elven. Mirae smile, touched by the sentiment.

To finish off her look were a pair of boots, dyed in the same light consuming black as the rest of her clothing. Knee high, leather boots. Mirae squealed, grabbing them and hugging them to her chest, they had a slight heel, or what would be seen as a slight heel for someone unaccustomed to high heels, they laced up, but over these laces were shiny silverite buckles. Mirae was going to kiss the ambassador the next time she saw the women.

 

—

 

The door to the war room was wide open when Mirae finished dressing herself, lacing the corset with an ease of long practice. Her silver-blue eyes searched quickly for the Ambassador, who for once did not have her writing tray in her hands. Mirae flew through the doorway and into the Ambassador's arms. "'Ma serannas! Спасибо! Grazie! Merci! Thank you! Thank you! _Thank you!_ " she cried in every language she knew.

The Ambassador's response was to push the girl off of her and flick her eyes down, at her boots, and say with a smirk. "Dragonling hide."

Mirae squealed in delight, hugging the ambassador once more. When she let go she could see the amusement light in Leliana's eye, confirmed with her light smirk. Asteria was even giving her a fondly amused half smile.

There was a cough at the doorway. Cullen stood there with his fur and feathered mantel looking around awkwardly.

Leliana's smirk grew, Josephine giggled while she smiled, Asteria just smiled and Mirae laughed.

 

—

 

The rest of the party met them in the war room. Each wearing their new armor, and sporting their new weapons. Each one of them, Mirae included, had a badge with the Inquisition's emblem in a sharp relief. Each of the new armors that they were wearing was crafted with each individual in mind, while using the best of the materials they had at their disposal. Making it so, while they were not in matching uniforms, they did indeed look like they were a part of the same organization.

It was tasteful and would promote a strong unified image to the people of Val Royeaux.

Each of the party's weapons were fresh from the forge, even Bianca was kitted out.

The meeting began, each of the members of the Council giving their advice and knowledge.

They would be leaving for Val Royeaux in an hour's time.

—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Спасибо: thank you in russian.  
> Grazie!: thank you in Italian.  
> Merci!: thank you in french.
> 
> I'm so, so sorry that it's taken me this long to get another chapter out. All I can say is writer's block is a bitch. I also wanted to get more then just this up for you guys but again. Writer's Block is a bitch. 
> 
> So hopefully this itty bitty chapter is enough to tide you over, until I can kick this writer's block's butt...even if it kinda ends in a little bit of a cliffhanger. 
> 
> Also! How do you folks like the title change?


	11. Announcement!

So to start right off, this is NOT an update, (sorry) but an Announcement. 

I've been wracking my brain trying to gather a few scattered thoughts together so I could get you folks an update...but it hasn't been working. At All. Because...well my brain's been bombarding me with new ideas. A few of them involving Kenzi, Dragon Age and of course Solas. They ideas just will not leave! Distracting me as they have, they've also given me some inspiration! 

So instead of taking those wonderful ideas and starting another fic, I'd thought maybe I should fuse it with this story! 

Which I cannot do at all with the story as it stands....which means...yes! Rewrite time!

So I will being do a rewrite of this, it will be called _'In the Shadows of Valhalla'_ and it should be up shortly (within a few days to a week) and I'm going to make a Series, that will include this just to keep it around. For those who want to go back to it. 

And yes, Kenzi the Elf will still sing. A lot.


	12. Rewrite Up!

I know it's late, but but life has a way of getting between a writer and their writing! I'm just glad that this is coming out before the New Year!

I hope this labor of love'll meet, or even exceed your expectations, and that you fine folks wont hate me for taking Kenzi's and Solas' tale in a drastically different direction!

Without further ado, here's the link to the rewrite!

[In the Shadows of Valhalla](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9089980/chapters/20665465)


End file.
